Communications from corporate management downward is usually fast and hopefully efficient. Corporations have been refining such techniques for decades. However, communications upward from individuals to the appropriate people in large corporations has typically been difficult due to the lack of appropriate systems, lack of priority or lack of knowledge of how to do so. The most infamous employee communication method is the “suggestion box”, which is quite inefficient even if it is used by management. Because of the actual or perceived difficulties involved with confidential “up the ladder” communications, many good ideas and information from employees never reach the proper individuals in a corporation. Such information may include Sarbanes-Oxley whistle blowing information, patentable subject matter, and efficiency ideas, to name a few. Such, communications may further be impeded by the concentration and segregation of expertise in distant or otherwise inaccessible corporate locations such as corporate attorneys, engineers, and scientists.
Obtaining information from a disclosing party historically has been a manual process requiring a personal face-to-face meeting between the disclosing party and an audience. Such meetings necessarily require scheduling of attorneys and other professionals during busy business hours, all of which entails a cost. Further, such meetings usually result in a collection of notes and maybe an audio recording.
Communications may be facilitated by providing convenient, secure locations and user friendly technology to a corporation's general employee population. Such locations may be fixed or portable. The locations may be specialized structures or specialized equipment deployed in a secure space such as an office. Although the type of information being communicated by a disclosing party may be quite varied, the subject matter disclosed herein will be discussed in terms of a provisional or a non-provisional patent application disclosure. Any specialized terms or acts unique to the patent disclosure process are merely exemplary and are not meant to limit this disclosure to the patent disclosure process.